Gibson blames the president for S&P's downgrade

In a stunningly partisan move that fails to take any responsibility for Tea Party brinkmanship, Congressman Gibson released a statement blaming President Obama and the Democrats for the downgrade in America's credit rating.

"This week, Congress passed and the President signed the Budget Control Act, which will cut between $2.1 trillion and $2.4 trillion over the next 10 years. This Act averted the immediate crisis of defaulting on roughly 40 percent of our federal debt obligations and influenced two of the three major credit rating agencies - Moody's and Fitch - to preserve our country's AAA credit rating. It was important to take action to avoid the chaos of the Obama Administration trying to sort through which bills to pay and which not to pay - leading to widespread panic across our country and the world. The consequences of this chaos would have been severe, resulting in a double-dip recession and possibly worse - our chances at an economic recovery wrecked. Without question, this bipartisan agreement fell short of what we needed to address our long-term debt crisis, but it was the best agreement that could be reached in a period of divided government. However, with S&P's downgrade of our credit rating to AA+, the Senate and White House must face this new reality and reassess their willingness to implement more comprehensive deficit reduction..."

Really, Congressman Gibson? President Obama was the one who created "chaos"? The fact that the GOP, fueled by the Tea Party, linked raising the debt limit with budget issues had nothing to do with it, right? It was the Democrats who refused to pass a clean bill to only raise the debt limit like it has been done every time before, right? It was Democrats who previously voted to raise the debt limit every time it came up without a peep who suddenly got religion and couldn't raise it again without taking a meat cleaver to social programs?

Reading statements like Congressman Gibson's makes one think they are in Superman's Bizarreo world -where everything is the opposite of reality on Earth.

And the Gibson gets away with it because his Tea Party supporters are low-information voters who believe what they want to believe.

Gibson gets spanked by the Times Union

In its July 27 editorial, the Times Union has called for Rookie Congressman Chris Gibson to “put down the gun and govern.”

The TU, like the all but the most radical of his constituents, wants Gibson to stop being the Tea Party/Corporate Representative and start representing his whole district.

But it seems Gibson will have none of it, falling in line with the radial far-right freshman class in Congress; voting to kill thousands of FAA jobs in an attempt to strip transportation workers of their collective bargaining rights, focusing on symbolic votes like “light bulb free choice” and the absurd “Cut Cap and Balance” fake vote.

The TU notes that President Obama and the Democrats (much to their Progressive supporters’ dismay) have bent over backwards to meet the GOP’s demands. But as with the rest of the GOTeaParty, Gibson can’t take “yes” for an answer.

In short, the TU has called Gibson what he is – a partisan, ideological hack who will do anything, including bringing the country he claims to love, to the brink of economic disaster.

Here is the full text of the Times Union editorial:

Get off the brink; time to govern

July 27, 2011 at 6:00 am by TU Editorial Board

Our opinion: The House Republicans’ all-or-nothing approach to debt and deficit talks isn’t a negotiating position, but a prescription for gridlock.

If President Obama had come out a few months ago and said that he was willing to reduce federal spending by trillions over the next decade and cut back key social programs like Medicare and Social Security in exchange for ending some tax breaks for the wealthiest individuals and corporations, many in his own party might have wondered if he had cut some secret deal with Republicans.

Yet even as Mr. Obama and many Democrats in Congress are ready to accept those very terms, compromising on many of their core positions just to secure a deal to keep this country from defaulting on its debt, House Republicans continue to dig in. While the President has been willing to risk alienating many in his party’s liberal wing, House Speaker John Boehner and his more mainstream colleagues appear to be cowed by a minority of radical freshman whose influence far exceeds their numbers.

They refuse to budge from an anti-tax, anti-government position, holding the nation and its economy hostage. The gun to America’s head is the threat of its first default in history, with potentially disastrous consequences for this country and the world.

With just days to go before the nation reaches its debt limit, it is time for them to end the brinkmanship.

It’s time for them to remember — or perhaps come out of their self-absorption and realize for the first time — that Americans didn’t elect them alone. They didn’t vote to hand the reins of government over to a relatively small bloc of ultra-conservative armchair economists.

Instead, in 2010 they left the Democrats in charge of the Senate and gave the Republicans a majority in the House of Representatives. They elected liberals, conservatives, moderates. They elected newcomers and incumbents. They elected people with different ideas of what the Constitution means, what government is for and how best to fix the economy and create jobs.

In short, they gave no one an absolute mandate.

It is time for intransigent House Republicans, from the tea partiers to the Capital Region’s Chris Gibson and the Hudson Valley’s Nan Hayworth, to accept that nobody gets to win their most extreme position in a negotiation.

It is time for them to heed conservative voices like Mickey Edwards, a former House Republican leader during the years of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Mr. Edwards has looked at what Democrats have offered and said that “If I was there, I would say, ‘My God, declare victory.’”

It is time for them to accept a plan that puts the debt limit battle to rest at least through the 2012 elections, not just patch it up for a few months and thrust it into the election season for political gain. 

And if they could stop shouting anti-tax slogans for just a little while, they might see that it’s also time to take advantage of the opportunity before them, right now, to cut the deficit that they supposedly went to Washington to trim.

That would be the responsible thing to do.

But if the Republicans aren’t up to that — if they’re determined to spend this entire session and the rest of this President’s first term doing nothing but campaigning for the next election — next year’s budget deliberations certainly offer another chance to engage in that debate, and in plenty of brinkmanship.

Right now, though, it’s time to put down the gun, step away and govern.

Gibson's puppet show

Rookie Tea Party Rep. Chris Gibson pretends that he cares deeply about the federal deficit, to the point that he is willing to join his fellow radical Republicans in crashing the country's economy by refusing to raise the debt limit.

In this as with most of his votes this year, Gibson is a reliable puppet of Republican House leaders John Boehner and Eric Kantor in refusing to support any tax increases or corporate loophole closings to deal with the alleged debt emergency.

More than that, Gibson is also a puppet of disgraced Republican political operative Grover Norquist -- Gibson has signed Norquist's pledge to never ever raise any tax or close any loophole.

Norquist famously wants a federal government so small that radical Republicans can drown it in a bathtub.

Which would mean the end of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, environmental regulation, VA hospitals, etc.

Gibson did four Independence Day events Monday, and evidently said nothing about his lack of independence as our Member of Congress, since he is more beholden to John Boehner, Eric Kantor, and Grover Norquist than he is to his constituents.

But then puppets never say anything that would upset their puppetmasters.

NY-20: Gibson rallies the tea party

Guest post: was taken from DailyKos where it originally appeared. It is posted here with the permission of the author, blogger devtob.

For a career Army officer, Republican Chris Gibson, who easily won NY-20 in 2010, has become a pretty good politician.

Though he was recruited for NY-20 by the GOP establishment, Gibson knows he has to keep the tea party radicals happy, even if he occasionally upsets them on sideshow issues like NPR funding.

So Wednesday evening, Gibson did a tele-town hall with tea party types, and it was a love fest.


There is a podcast-like recording of the conference call , though it apparently has been edited to remove the first few questions and a probable Gibson colloquoy with Bircher/tea party leader Spyder (the weird cut happens around 17:05, just after the thing really starts).

I wonder what that's about.

After the cut, Gibson is asked about Ron Paul's bill to audit the Federal Reserve.

Gibson said he was a cosponsor, adding:

"Ron Paul's becoming a friend, he's had me over for dinner, I go to his office to chat."

Gibson is not a Bircher, but he knows his small audience here, which generally supports the Bircher candidate for the GOP presidential nomination -- Ron Paul.

There was no explicit discussion of how Gibson voted to end Medicare, after saying he opposed vouchers during the campaign. Presumably none of the Bircher/tea partiers cared that Gibson lied, because they think Medicare is unconstitutional.

But Medicare did come up implicitly in a brief discussion of the NY-26 debacle for the House GOP.

Gibson offered banal talking points, rallying the troops, and never mentioning Medicare (at 27 to 28):

"Let me just say this, don't lose heart about what happened in NY-26.

Do not take counsel of your fears, there's a myriad of explanations. But at the end of the day, we go forward.

We've got the right plan, the only plan out there that meets the vision, we've got the only plan that is pro-growth and fiscally responsible, that's gonna put America back to work and begin to move us back towards a balanced budget, that pays down the debt over time.

Join me at the barricade, and this country will go forward."

When Gibson said "pro-growth and fiscally responsible," he slowed down and almost whispered.

Like a pro.

The dog whistle in that word salad is that Gibson wholeheartedly supports the radical Ryan Republican budget, which would eliminate Medicare, decimate Medicaid, cut taxes even more for the wealthy and corporations, and do little to reduce the deficit, let alone pay back the debt, for 10 years.

Bircher/tea partiers on the call surely heard the dog whistle, and presumably lapped it up.

In his farewell, Gibson said he would remain true to working for "job creation, deficit reduction and protection of freedoms."

Of course, no one asked what he had done for job creation, other than what Republicans always do, to little real effect -- cut taxes for the rich even more, while decrying the deficit and the debt largely caused by tax cuts.

And, in this instance, Gibson's vote to help needy billionaires had ZERO effect, since the radical Ryan Republican budget will not be enacted in this Congress.

Naturally, Gibson told his far-right base that he looks "forward to interacting" with them "as we go forward."

IMHO, Gibson will be tough to beat next year, in whatever district he gets after redistricting.

Sure, he's lying about Medicare, and speaking in inoffensive GOP cliches that mask the real Republican platform -- lower taxes for the rich and fewer services/programs for the non-rich.

But he's become an accomplished political liar, repeating Boehner talking points with Boy Scout conviction, and I fear that act will convince too many voters.

Guest Post from Daily Kos - Town Halls, then and now

The following post was grabbed from Daily Kos, with the permission of the author, devtob.

 Back in the summer of 2009, tea partiers, egged on by the Republican cable "news" channel and Republican astroturf groups, turned out en masse to disrupt town hall meetings, shout down Democratic Members of Congress, and denounce the pending health care reform bill.

Paul Tonko, a solid progressive who was then a freshman representing NY-21, got the treatment at Elm Avenue Park in Bethlehem, just south of Albany -- lots of delusional Constitution questions and the sign at right.

Tonko more than held his own, explaining the obvious need for HCR and liberally citing the general welfare clause, to the frustration of the tea partiers.

About 600 people attended that town hall, about equally divided between tea partiers and HCR supporters.

Today, Tonko held a town hall in East Greenbush (just east of Albany), and the scene was very different -- about 100 people in a firehouse, only a handful of them tea partiers.

Tonko was at the Clinton Heights firehouse to announce an $87,000 federal grant for portable radios, a thermal imaging camera, and other emergency services equipment, and to present a flag that flew over the Capitol.

But mostly he discussed what's happening in the new Republican-dominated House.

Tonko noted that he's on a new committee -- Budget -- so he's on the front line of the current Continuing Resolution battles. 

There is a proposal in the House to cut spending by $100 billion that has raised concerns for many. The original package presented by Speaker Boehner was for about $32 billion. There is a group, primarily newer elected officials if not the newest, that suggested it should be deeper than $32 billion, it should rise to $100 billion.And if you ask a number of people, why $100 billion, many will suggest it's a number they tossed out in their campaigns.

My problem with that is this was done in a whimsical fashion, there was no calculus, they had not served in Congress, but a three-digit number like 100, billion sounded good. But we have to be careful, because those cuts can be rocking the comeback of the economy.

Since March of last year, we have added 1.5 million private sector jobs. The think tanks around this country are suggesting that the $100 billion cut in domestic programs could cause unemployment of 700,000 to 800,000. So that would wipe out half of the progress made. Setting us back 700,000 to 800,00 jobs is a frightening thought.

Tonko added that the cuts would come entirely from domestic discretionary spending (a small percentage of the overall budget) -- cuts to all forms of education aid, cuts to technological innovation, cuts to public safety, cuts to clean air/clean water regulations, etc.

He noted that the Ryan Roadmap, named after the new Budget Committee chairman who proposed it, is the still GOP's budget blueprint, and that it would privatize Social Security and turn Medicare into an inadequate voucher program (at $11,000 annually, growing by just 2 percent a year, and impoverishing sick seniors).

Tonko said that his top priority is job creation, since he believes that our lingering high unemployment "drives our deficit" and the only effective way to reduce the deficit is to create jobs.

He noted that House Republicans have not introduced even one jobs bill in any committee.

Tonko also explained that the Republicans have not proposed any cuts to the tens of billions spent on military contractors, and have proposed nothing to limit the $100 billion (that number again) in special tax treatment for oil companies, or the tax policies that encourage outsourcing of American jobs.

In the Q&A, most questions reflected concerns over what the radical House Republicans are up to, but there was one bona fide tea party question, asked, naturally, by a guy who obviously receives Social Security and Medicare benefits.

It was long and rambling, deficit/debt/grandchildren blah blah, but here's the essence: 

I find it incredible that out of a $3 trillion budget, we can't find $100 billion to cut.

Tonko replied:

We need to make certain we look at waste, inefficiency, outmoded programs. We need to look at the handouts to oil companies, we need to look at corporate loopholes, we need to look at the Defense Department. I agree with you there are ways to reduce the budget, but in significantly less painful ways. When we start cutting some of these programs they announced, ... 700,000 to 800,000 jobs lost is not what we need right now.

We need to do it in a way that doesn't take an ax to the budget, but a scalpel.
As to our children, the greatest burden we're placing on them is unemployment. Because without a job, there is no hope.

Tea party types tried, albeit half-heartedly, to turn out people to today's town hall.

It's probably natural, after winning the House majority and six (almost seven) seats in New York alone, that tea partiers are just less white-hot angry now than they were in the summer of 2009.

They still don't like Tonko at all, but realize that their candidate against him got trounced in 2010, and that berating Tonko in public would do little to change that result next year.

Indeed, some of them seem more annoyed with their 2010 darling, Chris Gibson of NY-20, than they are with Tonko.

After all, they don't expect Tonko to ever vote the way they want, but they expect Gibson to be with them on every vote.

And when he's not, he's accused of having: 

a fast and loose a la carte interpretation of the Constitution as evidenced by yesterday’s bizarre support for unconstitutional NPR funding and previous support for continued arts funding.

There really is no pleasing hard-core tea partiers until Ron Paul is President, with Paulite supermajorities in both Houses of Congress, and they all drown the federal government in Grover Norquist's bathtub.

Which will never happen.